Under Irish law, a company has a maximum of nine months after
its financial year-end to prepare an annual return and associated
financial information for filing with the Companies Registration
Office (whereupon such documents will be publicly available).
The Companies (Amendment) Act 2019 (the "2019
Act") has been signed into law and amends the
Companies Act 2014. Currently, there is a potential two-step
procedure for a company to file an annual return whereby it must
file its annual return within 28 days of its annual-return date
but, if it does so electronically, the company has a further 28
days to submit its financial statements. The 2019 Act has
amalgamated these two time periods and provides for a single-step
process whereby a company will now have 56 days to file both its
annual return and financial statements.
It is expected that the 2019 Act will be generally commenced
towards the end of Q4 of 2019.
The 2019 Act is a welcome step to simplify the process for filing
annual returns and financial statements in Ireland and to ease the
administrative burden on companies.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.